By
way of an introduction, please allow me to give you a brief overview of our group's
background and aims: -

Background

The Preserved Locomotive
Enthusiasts
Group, or PLEG, was formally set up in 2003, though the
Policy
Group members of the
group have been working together to bring you opportunities to travel behind the
rarer UK preserved locomotives since 2001.

As a point of clarification, although
we make no distinction between the different types of preserved traction, steam
locomotives are currently outside of our remit.Our interest is purely diesel (all forms, i.e. mechanical,
hydraulic, electric etc.) and electric (AC/DC and electro-diesel) locomotives.We congratulate the work done by the various steam groups around the UK
and wish them well, but the world of steam is not within our sphere of interest.

The
initial reason for PLEG's existence was
that a number of us as haulage enthusiasts had ridden behind all the
'available' preserved locomotives and, although there were other locomotives
that were available for traffic at various sites, the railways in question
refused to use them on passenger trains. The reasons for this were numerous and
the list below is by no means exhaustive, but serves to give you an idea: -

1) The actual loco in question could
have some restriction placed upon it for technical reasons, i.e. mechanical
integrity, braking issues etc.

2) There was no perceived market for
these types of locomotives.

3) The railway in question was a steam
railway and did not wish to use diesel locomotives, unless there was a failure on
a steam train, as diesel trains were not in keeping with the lines image.

And so on....

To address this
problem a group of
fellow haulage enthusiasts got together and tried to find a way through this
impasse.Our preferred method of
working is for the railways themselves to hold an event using the locomotive(s) in
question, and we would promote the event.This
method of working has been used successfully many times in the past.An alternative method is also available, and that is for PLEG to actually
charter a train to be hauled by the required locomotives.

(It should be noted from the outset
that PLEG is a NOT FOR PROFIT GROUP. WE DO NOT, AND DO NOT WISH TO, MAKE ANY
MONEY WHATSOEVER FROM ANY OF THE EVENTS THAT WE ORGANISE.THE MARGINS THAT ARE MADE ARE PASSED STRAIGHT ON THROUGH TO THE RAILWAY THAT IS
HOSTING THE EVENT.

)

However,
having said all that, time has moved on and it increasingly seems to be the case
that most preserved railways are
now starting to welcome diesel enthusiasts more and more. Indeed, hitherto
predominately steam only railways now hold diesel events. In this type of
circumstance PLEG will assist the railway in any way it can, i.e. advice and
promotion etc.

Ai

ms

PLEG will do its utmost to work with
the UK's preserved railways in order to provide all of us with opportunities to
ride behind the rarer preserved locomotives.All our activities will be conducted in strict accordance to PLEG's own
guidelines and these can be viewed by clicking
here.

PLEG also aims to recognise those
railways that organise 'top drawer' diesel galas for themselves, there will be
more on this subject to follow due course.

Footnote

I hope the above has given you answers
to the Who/What/Why? questions, and you are now encouraged to browse the other
pages of this website.

Please
do let us have any comments that you have, at PLEG we believe in continual
improvement! Click
here to send us
at PLEG an email

.

I conclude this introduction to the group by stating
that PLEG's hope is that all preserved railways will stage events to utilise
their full fleets of locomotives on a relatively regular basis, without the need for the intervention of our
group.Thus, our success will
ultimately be achieved by marking our own demise.